Michelle Morrow’s big lie on X.
On September 16, candidate for school superintendent Michelle Morrow crossed a line both sides of the aisle have said goes too far: she publicly implied LGBTQ+ folks are pedophiles, and stated her opponent Mo Green won’t keep students safe because of his support for the community. To be specific, here’s exactly what she said:
“As Superintendent, I will work with the GA to enforce mandatory background checks for ALL public school staff and IMMEDIATELY suspend the license of any staff member arrested for crimes against children. Mo Green has stated that the Parental Bill of Rights ‘Does more harm than good’ and he states he is ‘proudly endorsed’ by Equality NC, whose mission statement is to promote LGBTQ+ power. Newsflash…the ‘+’ includes PEDOPH*L*A!! Mo Green will NOT keep our children safe!”
It’s officially less than 50 days before the November general election, and it’s no surprise campaigns are switching into high gear to convince voters they’re the right choice. Some are using hateful rhetoric and name-calling as a strategy in attempt to pave a way to victory by creating division and instilling fear.
Morrow is one of those candidates. As the Republican nominee for North Carolina Superintendent of Public Schools, she’s no stranger to name-calling or blame game strategies. In fact, her entire campaign is based on ostracizing LGBTQ+ North Carolinians and advocating for anti-queer policies like the Parents’ Bill of Rights and the health care ban for trans and gender-nonconforming youth.
A Morrow supporter recently asked the candidate on the social media platform X for her thoughts on charter schools not having guidelines in response to a former teacher at a Burke County charter school who pleaded guilty to and was sentenced for child sex crimes.
As mentioned in her post previously, Morrow replied she would work with the North Carolina General Assembly to enforce background checks for every public school staff member and suspend the license of those arrested for crimes against children, before layered on the lies about Equality NC and the LGBTQ+ community.
Green’s campaign responded to Morrow’s X post, calling the comments about the LGBTQ+ community and Equality NC “wrong,” “hateful” and “bullying vulnerable students, staff and families across North Carolina.”
“This is another example in Michele Morrow’s long history of spreading hatred,” he wrote, “encouraging violence, and proving she’s unfit to lead our public schools. She’s the wrong role model for North Carolina’s 1.3 million students in public schools.
“Every child deserves to learn, and every staff member deserves to work, in an environment that is safe, welcoming, and inclusive,” he continued. “Politicians like Morrow use schools as battlegrounds for their culture wars and it’s simply unacceptable. We have to be focused on the very real education challenges in front of us, such as getting a well-paid teacher in every classroom and addressing the shortage of mental health professionals who support the well-being of our students.”
<BOLD>Who is Michele Morrow?<BOLD>
Morrow was born in upstate New York, where she spent most of her childhood until she moved to Charlotte as a sophomore in high school. She received her Bachelor’s of Science Degree in Nursing from UNC-Chapel Hill and went on to work for hospitals and ICUs in Texas after marrying her husband, Stuart. They had five children, who she home schooled and sent to private schools for most of their lives. Prior to her campaign for the office of State Superintendent, Morrow unsuccessfully ran for the Wake County Board of Education after becoming involved in the “parental rights” movement.
Now Morrow is seeking to oversee the state’s entire public education system — a system she has called a hub for “indoctrination centers” and “socialism centers.” Her campaign website has a three pillar plan to address scholastics, safety and spending in schools, but each point in her plan demonizes public education. Under the first section labeled “scholastics,” Morrow targets curriculum regarding racially-aware and queer history, using buzz phrases including “teaching children racially divisive and sexually explicit content.”
She also has come under fire for openly calling for a televised execution of former President Barack Obama and current President Joe Biden.
“I prefer a Pay Per View of him in front of the firing squad,” she wrote in a tweet from May 2020, responding to someone who said they should send Obama to prison at Guantanamo Bay. “I do not want to waste another dime on supporting his life. We could make some money back from televising his death.”
If she is elected and has her way, Morrow wants to eliminate the state’s board of education, which is responsible for creating policies and procedures for public schools in the state. By getting rid of the board, the state’s education agenda would be under the control of the superintendent and the state legislature, which currently is led by Republicans.
“I’d like to see a constitutional amendment to get rid of the state Board of Education,” she said. “If the superintendent is elected and works under the legislature – knowing that they’re accountable to the legislature to oversee the DPI and to oversee and have impact into the superintendents in the 115 districts, I think we would be so much better off because you don’t have all these extra people right in [the] mix.”
<BOLD>Fact checking fear mongering<BOLD>
It’s important to hold people running for public office accountable when they overstep the bounds of their jobs or the jobs they seek, and this case is no different. The “+” in LGBTQ+ doesn’t stand for pedophilia, as Morrow claimed — it’s meant to include those not represented by the acronym itself.
Pedophilia is defined by the American Psychological Association as a disorder “in which sexual acts or fantasies involving pre-pubertal children are the persistently preferred or exclusive method of achieving sexual excitement.”
The LGBTQ+ community has not advocated for pedophilia. Such claims are rooted in past anti-gay movements and tied to a history of longstanding false claims. Evangelical Christians in the 1970s used claims of higher rates of child sex crimes in gay communities to spread misinformation and instill fear among the community at large.
Raleigh-based television station WRAL found Morrow’s claim was a “pants on fire” level of false, according to their official fact checking partner PolitiFact.
It reads as follows: “Morrow said the plus in LGBTQ+ includes pedophilia. That’s ridiculous. The plus sign in the widely-used acronym “LGBTQ+” recognizes sexual orientations and gender identities that are not represented by the other five letters. There is no evidence of a connection between gay, lesbian or bisexual people and child molestation. In fact, studies of child sexual abuse have shown that most child molesters identify as heterosexual.”
Schools don’t need protection from LGBTQ+ folks. Trans students or openly queer-identifying teachers are not a threat to North Carolina’s children.
The real threat comes from Morrow and others like her who, instead of using their platforms to advocate for raises in teacher pay and better investments in public education, push false claims with the hopes of capitalizing off of the division it causes.
